An optical fiber welding machine is used to connect two optical fiber segments. The two optical fiber segments are placed in V-shape grooves respectively at the same time, and the ends of the fiber segments contact with each other, then a pair of electrodes are putted near the contact point of the fibers, then high voltage is applied on the electrodes to generate arc discharge, and the point of contact is fused by the heat generated by the arc discharge, so as to fuse with the two fiber segments and complete the connection.
First of all, the following problems may exist in the structure of device for butt joint of the optical fiber's core (hereafter referred to as a butt point device or a core device):
As the diameter of the optical fiber is only a few tens of microns, the dust in the air falls into the v-shaped track of fibers easily during working, then the alignment of the fiber is affected, leading to loss of fusion welding. Both devices for butt joint and non-butt joint of the optical fiber's core are adopted in current market, and the device for non-butt joint of the optical fiber's core works inefficiently, and the loss is not stable. Although the device for butt joint of the optical fiber's core is expensive, it has high efficiency, stable loss, more demand of market. Because the butt joint device has complex structure, the cost of integrated mold is higher, and the mold manufacturing and component shaping are difficult. In the existing domestic thermosetting molding technology, the precision of the material and molding equipment, which is used to manufacture the thermosetting mold with high precision, is poor. Meanwhile the dimension stability of raw materials is not enough, which is not conducive to make the components with complex shape and high precision.
Then, electrode plates have the following possible defects:
An electrode is connected to the high voltage power supply equipment, and the tip of the electrode is tapered to ensure it easy to produce arc discharge. The cone shape of electrode tips must be very accurate in order to correctly complete the connection of fine fiber. But after several times of arc discharging, the electrode will wear gradually, thus the shape and the location of the arc discharge will change, and heat is added to wrong location of the optical fiber, leading to that two pieces of fiber cannot be connected to each other normally, may also cause a defect product when it is serious, when the electrode need to be replaced. An electrode is located on the workbench by an electrode gland, and thus the electrode gland must be removed in replacement. Current electrode glands have screws, and fix to the workbench by the screws. When remove the screw, we need to use a special screw wrench to unscrew the screw, and then the electrode gland is removed, the electrode is taken off from the workbench and the replacement is done. When the new electrode is installed, firstly the new electrode must be put on specific location of the workbench, then the electrode gland is placed on the workbench, and then the gland is fixed to the workbench and the new electrode is located by fastening the screw using the special wrench. Due to the small size of the electrode gland screw, special wrenches are needed to be used to tighten or loosen it. It is easy to get the wrench lost in daily work, and it is difficult to find other alternative tools, leading to difficulty to install or remove the electrode gland and replacement, bringing much inconvenience to the work.